1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a document preparing apparatus using a computer, and more particularly to a hyper-text document preparing apparatus in which a document having a hyper-text form is prepared.
2. Description of the Related Art
The transmission and reception of information among a plurality of terminals far from each other through a computer network has been recently performed on an extensive scale. In particular, because a piece of information stored in a computer of a first information supplying terminal has a referential relationship with another piece of information stored in the same computer or a piece of information stored in a computer of a second information supplying terminal, an information transmitting system in which pieces of first information having a referential relationship with each other are stored on one information supplying terminal or a plurality of information supplying terminals and the pieces of first information are transferred to a computer of an information reading terminal has been quickly spread.
In this information transmitting system, a referential relationship among all pieces of information is expressed in a hyper-text form composed of a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links respectively connecting a pair of nodes. For example, a Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) which is gradually standardized in an IETF internet draft is often used to express a referential relationship among pieces of hyper-text information transmitted through a computer network. The HTML is a symbolic language based on a standard generalized mark-up language (SGML) and defined in ISO (international standardization organization) 8879:1986.
The HTML is a type of page description language, and each page can be expressed by a single node or a plurality of nodes. A piece of link information for identifying both first information transmitted to second information for reference and the second information is written in an arbitrary position of a page to express each link connecting a pair of nodes by using an identifier allocated to each node. The link information indicates only a referential relationship between information, and any relationship between contents of information is not indicated by the link information.
Contents described in the HTML are mainly used as a common information holding means to have information in a plurality of terminals in common on a TCP/IP network (that is, an internet or an intranet) according to a hyper-text transport protocol (HTTP). The common information holding means is generally called a world wide web (WWW).
The hyper-text is generally used as a data base type for the computer, and many methods and apparatuses for preparing a hyper-text type document are proposed.
2.1. Previously Proposed Art
FIG. 1 shows a conceptual information structure of a conventional hyper-text document as a first prior art.
As shown in FIG. 1, a hyper-text document is composed of a plurality of nodes respectively denoting an element of the document and a plurality of links respectively indicating a referential relationship between a pair of nodes. In detail, a node 101 includes an anchor 102, and a link 103 extending from the anchor 102 to a node 104 exists. Therefore, one node is related with another node through one anchor and one link for each node.
In the hyper-text document, a degree of freedom in the referential relationship between a pair of nodes is high, so that an information structure of the hyper-text document can be arbitrarily designed. In contrast, there is a drawback that a link structure denoting a linking relationship among the nodes is complicated, and the complication of the link structure becomes worse as the number of nodes is increased.
Therefore, in cases where a reader reaches particular information through a plurality of links and nodes, it becomes difficult that the reader recognizes a position of the particular information in the link structure. Also, it becomes difficult for a hyper-text document preparing operator to make the link structure or renew the link structure because of the renewal of a node.
As is described above, to solve the above drawbacks occurring when the hyper-text document is utilized, various prior arts have been proposed.
As a second prior art, a Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. H3-192462 (1991) and a Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. H4-211865 (1992) are proposed. In these applications, the relationship among a plurality of documents having a plurality of predetermined formats is defined in advance, so that the necessity for spreading a link each time a document is prepared is eliminated.
As a third prior art, a Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. H6-243024 (1994) is proposed. In this application, a concept of nodes and links is extended to a new concept of fields and anchors, each field is composed of a plurality of nodes arranged in a set, each field has information relating to a meaning represented by a node set of field, so that a relationship in meaning between nodes is clarified.
As a fourth prior art, a Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. H6-259312 (1994) is proposed. In this application, a tree structure is secondarily extracted from a network structure of hyper-text documents, and a network type document is easily processed by using the tree structure. Also, because an arbitrary portion of the hyper-text documents is expressed by a tree structure, it is possible that an outline editor using the hyper-text documents expressed by a tree structure is used to edit the hyper-text documents.
Therefore, in the second, third and fourth prior arts, a link concept denoting the simple referential relationship between the nodes included in the hyper-text document is extended, and the difficulty in the link management is improved.
2.2. Problems to be Solved by the Invention
However, in the first prior art, because each link of the hyper-text document written according to the conventional HTML has only a function of reference from one node to another node, an interface used as a reading means is used for only reference.
Also, in the second prior art, a document to be prepared is limited to a plurality of predetermined format types of documents relating to each other such as a specification document, an account document or the like. Therefore, the second prior art is not appropriate for a hyper-text document preparing apparatus in which a plurality of types of documents having various formats are used. That is, because a format of the document is limited to one of the predetermined formats, a degree of freedom in expressing the document is lowered.
Also, in the third prior art, because an interface used by a reader depends on contents of the field, the link management for documents performed by using the same interface cannot be simplified. That is, a reader is required to understand the meaning represented by a node set of field and to use an interface corresponding to the meaning for the purpose of referring to the field for a piece of particular information relating to the meaning, so that the interface used as a reading means is limited.
Also, in the fourth prior art, because the main purpose is to secondarily extract an easily-treated tree structure from a network structure of hyper-text documents, when a network structure of hyper-text documents having a large number of nodes is prepared and managed, the troublesomeness required to manually prepare and manage each of links is not reduced. Also, because the outline editor unique to the fourth prior art is used, the fourth prior art is not appropriate to generate HTML documents on an internet used for various users.
Therefore, in a hyper-text document preparing apparatus used to output HTML documents, it is required to provide a function for supporting a link management of a document preparing person, generate HTML documents used for all-purpose and provide a mechanism not to confuse a reader of an HTML document.
A first object of the present invention is to provide, with due consideration to the drawbacks of such a conventional hyper-text document preparing apparatus, a hyper-text document preparing apparatus in which a degree of freedom for the expression of hyper-text documents is high, each of links functions as a simple reference and referential relationship among the hyper-text documents is clarified in a hyper-text document preparation.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a hyper-text document preparing apparatus in which the troublesomeness required to prepare and manage links in a hyper-text document preparation and a hyper-text document editing operation is reduced.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a hyper-text document preparing apparatus in which relationships among a plurality of hyper-text documents are easily grasped by a hyper-text document preparing person and a hyper-text document reader and the link structure of hyper-text documents is easily handled.
The first object is achieved by the provision of a hyper-text document preparing apparatus, comprising:
receiving means for receiving pieces of character information respectively indicating characters for a hyper-text document indicated by a node, pieces of connection information respectively indicating a connection of a node or a group of nodes with another node or another group of nodes and pieces of connection type information respectively indicating a type of the connection;
node managing means for preparing or revising each of a plurality of nodes according to the pieces of character information to produce pieces of node information respectively indicating contents of each node;
hierarchy structure managing means for establishing or revising a connection-relationship between a node or a group of nodes and another node or another group of nodes according to one piece of connection information and one piece of connection type information corresponding to the connection information for each of the nodes of which the pieces of node information are produced by the node managing means and producing hierarchy structure information indicating a hierarchy structure in which the nodes having the connection-relationships with each other are arranged; and
hyper-text document preparing means for preparing a group of hyper-text documents, in which a plurality of hyper-text documents are arranged in the hierarchy structure, from the node information produced by the node managing means and the hierarchy structure information produced by the hierarchy structure managing means.
In the above configuration, when pieces of character information are received, each of a plurality of nodes indicating a plurality of hyper-text documents is prepared or revised according to the character information, and pieces of node information respectively indicating contents of each node are produced by the node managing means. Thereafter, when pieces of connection information and pieces of connection type information corresponding to the pieces of connection information are received, a connection-relationship between a node or a group of nodes and another node or another group of nodes is established or revised according to one piece of connection information and one piece of connection type information by the hierarchy structure managing means for each node. Therefore, a hierarchy structure of the nodes is made.
Thereafter, a plurality of hyper-text documents arranged in the hierarchy structure are prepared by the hyper-text document preparing means from hierarchy structure information indicating the hierarchy structure and the node information produced by the node managing means. In this case, the arrangement of the hyper-text documents in the hierarchy structure is determined according to the hierarchy structure information produced by the hierarchy structure managing means, and the contents of each hyper-text document are indicated by the node information.
Accordingly, because the preparation or revision of the arrangement of the hyper-text documents in the hierarchy structure is performed independent of the preparation or revision of the contents of the hyper-text documents, the hyper-text documents arranged in the hierarchy structure can be easily prepared. In particular, in cases where each connection-relationship between two nodes functions as a referential relationship, a plurality of hyper-text documents of which referential relationships are clarified in the hierarchy structure can be easily prepared.
Also, because a connection-relationship between a node or a group of nodes and another node or another group of nodes is established or revised for each node, any arrangement of the hyper-text documents in the hierarchy structure can be reliably and easily performed, so that a degree of freedom for the arrangement of the hyper-text documents is high.
It is preferred that the hyper-text document preparing apparatus further comprise:
link automatic production information storing means for storing pieces of link automatic production information respectively indicating a group of data allocated to the nodes having the hierarchy structure produced by the hierarchy structure managing means; and
link information automatic producing means for selecting a particular piece of link automatic production information from the pieces of link automatic production information stored in the link automatic production information means according to an information selecting instruction received by the receiving means, allocating anchor information obtained from the particular piece of link automatic production information to each node according to the node information produced by the node managing means and the hierarchy structure information produced by the hierarchy structure managing means, and automatically producing link information indicating a linking relationship between one node functioning as an original node and another node functioning as a referential node for each of the nodes according to the anchor information to perform a referential movement from the original node to the referential node, a group of hyper-text documents, in which a plurality of hyper-text documents are arranged in the hierarchy structure and are related to each other in the linking relationships, being prepared from the node information produced by the node managing means, the hierarchy structure information produced by the hierarchy structure managing means and the link information.
In the above configuration, a linking relationship between an original node and a referential node is automatically produced for each of the nodes, and a user reading contents of the original node can refer to the referential node. Therefore, the troublesomeness required to prepare and manage link relationships in a hyper-text document preparation and a hyper-text document editing operation can be reduced.
The third object is achieved by the provision of a hyper-text document preparing apparatus, comprising:
receiving means for receiving pieces of character information respectively indicating characters for a hyper-text document indicated by a node, pieces of connection information respectively indicating a connection of a node or a group of nodes with another node or another group of nodes and pieces of connection type information respectively indicating a type of the connection;
node managing means for preparing or revising each of a plurality of nodes according to the pieces of character information to produce pieces of node information respectively indicating contents of each node;
hierarchy structure managing means for establishing or revising a connection-relationship between a node or a group of nodes and another node or another group of nodes according to one piece of connection information and one piece of connection type information corresponding to the connection information for each of the nodes of which the pieces of node information are produced by the node managing means and producing hierarchy structure information indicating a hierarchy structure in which the nodes having the connection-relationships with each other are arranged; and
hierarchy structure displaying means for preparing the hierarchy structure of a plurality of nodes from the hierarchy structure information produced by the hierarchy structure managing means and displaying the hierarchy structure of the node.
In the above configuration, the hierarchy structure of the nodes is displayed by the hierarchy structure displaying means. Therefore, connection-relationships among a plurality of nodes (or hyper-text documents) can be easily grasped by a hyper-text document preparing person and a hyper-text document reader, and the hierarchy structure of nodes (or hyper-text documents) can be easily handled.
It is preferred that the hyper-text document preparing apparatus, further comprise
hierarchy structure changing means for changing the hierarchy structure information produced by the hierarchy structure managing means according to a hierarchy structure changing instruction received by the receiving means, a changed hierarchy structure of a plurality of nodes being prepared and displayed by the hierarchy structure displaying means according to the changed hierarchy structure information.
In the above configuration, the hierarchy structure of the nodes can be easily changed.